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Grand Canyon south rim

Journey map

Approximately:

• From Oak Creek Vista (A) to Tusayan Airport (B) : 91 miles and 1h30 of road
• From Tusayan Airport (B) to Grand Canyon Village (C) : 8 miles and 20 minutes of road

J9 - Saturday, May 19 (continued)

At 3:20pm, we arrive at Grand Canyon Village on our site at Mather campground, almost the same place than in 2009. I chose this location (No. 290) as it's very easy to walk through woods directly to Market Plaza to take shuttles, without the need to walk to the camp entrance. We take our table and our chairs out of car (although the location is already provided) and finally we can lunch!

After a brief round of mule deer, we go through the woods to take the shuttle that will carry us to Hopi Point to watch the sunset; we will not be alone  !
What fascinates us always in this kind of pictures, besides of course the majesty of the site, is to see the progress of shadows in addition to light variations (hue and intensity).
For reasons of homogeneity, photos of our two devices are separated.

On the way back, in the shuttle, some beautiful deers in Grand Canyon Village, but cameras are already stored and, moreover, it is already very dark to photograph them.
We go to bed at 9:40pm.

J10 - Sunday, May 20

Wake up at 5:30 and 46 °F. After breakfast, we discus with our neighbors from Quebec on their honeymoon, before going to the rim and to the Visitor Center at 7:20am. We had skipped this part in 2009, following our car problems.

Back to camp with shuttle then we drive to Tusayan at 9:45 for our helicopter flight. We are quite early, but.... . We finally board with a German couple who are certainly lighter than us because they have the front seats .
After a looooooooong overflight of the plateau and the forest (ditto for the return), we finally arrive and then, there is a magnificent view and the music is also there to sublimate the moment (Thus Spoke Zarathustra).

The show is really beautiful and our eyes flicker from right to left with the desire to see everything, to discover everything, worse than children in a toy store , not to mention our cameras and camcorder that needs to be managed.

By cons, be lenient on the technical quality of photos, the helicopter pilot did not bother to clean his glasses! and horizontality is not necessarily perfect!

We do not regret this flight (our first heli) but, as we'll see later, we found better (in our opinion).

Back to Mather Camp at 1:10pm for lunch and departure to South Kaibab Trail.

3 years ago, Isabelle wanted to go down to the bottom (Phantom Ranch, reservation required at least 3 months earlier) and back the next day; after our hike to the volcano of La Reunion (French island), we've got to keep that in proportion .

Today we have planned to hike down a little bit lower than Cedar Ridge, about 400 to 500 yards of descent, which we'll go back up!

2h25pm, here we go, we start the descent; the trail winds and twists, with occasionally a steep slope! Our knees are ok at the moment; the toes are stuck on the front of the shoes.
25 minutes later, we arrive at the first step Ooh-Ahh Point after 1 mile walk (pedo); small break to take photos then we continue the descent to the end of the Cedar Ridge plateau where we arrived at 3:22pm after 2 miles of hike.

Photos, snacks and at 4:02pm, we take the way back. There were many photo stops (almost out of practice ) and at 5:44pm we get up after 3.7 miles. No temperature on our pedometer but it's very hot. Then shuttle back to the car where a nice cool drink awaits us in the cooler. .
At 6:20pm (91 °F), given our state (tiredness, dust, perspiration), we like better a shower than going to see the eclipse and we go back directly to Mather Camp (showers are down, near the entry).
After a very pleasant washing, I expect Isabelle in our car, listening to Bonnie Tyler when, suddenly, four mules deer come grazing in front of the car .
Back to camp to 7:25 p.m. (75 °F).

J11 - Monday, May 21

Sunrise at 5:30, breakfast and cleaning of our dishes in running water. After refueling of our water cans, we left Mather Camp at 7:25am (66 °F).
Few photo stops along Desert Drive ).